Vivian Campbell’s Cancer Treatment Will Allow Him to Tour with Def Leppard

Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell will be able to join the group for almost all of its summer tour, he has revealed.

The guitarist recently announced the Hodgkin’s lymphoma he has been battling for two years has returned and that he would be unable to join the group on its three and a half month tour with Styx and Tesla.

He has now revealed that he will be able to avoid radiation treatment and arrange for a therapy schedule that allows him to perform all but two shows of the tour.

Def Leppard’s tour begins today in Tampa, Florida, and continues on June 25 in West Palm Beach. Campbell will join the group starting on its third date, on June 27 in Birmingham, Alabama.

It’s suspected that Trixter guitarist Steve Brown will fill in for Campbell in his absence, as he did for some dates on Def Leppard’s 2014 tour.

Campbell was clearly overjoyed at the news. He posted on his Facebook page:

So, so happy to report that I’ve dodged the bullet of radiation. I was due to start a course that would have sidelined me for most of the first leg of the US tour, but my brilliant doctors have steered me towards an alternative course of treatment that will enable me to rejoin the tour this Saturday night in Birmingham Alabama. Furthermore, they’ve tailored future treatments to accommodate the tour schedule so I won’t have to miss any more shows.

I’m so happy and so indebted to the wonderful physicians who have worked so hard on my behalf to make this happen.